


Eternity in a Second

by mysteriousgemstone (orphan_account)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Body Horror, Emotional Hurt, Established Keith/Lance (Voltron), Hurt Lance (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Whump, M/M, Mercy Killing, Mutilation, Not Really Character Death, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:20:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26199220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/mysteriousgemstone
Summary: “Is this… some kind of sick joke? Is this some weird Altean coping thing? Either way, start making sense” snapped Keith, getting angrier as his sentence went on.“She’s not joking. I agree with her” said Shiro.Keith’s heart broke.After finding Lance hurt beyond his darkest imagination Keith had to fight one more enemy: his team.He lost that fight.
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 91





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> reupload
> 
> story is chapter 1 and chapter 2 is just an alternate scene

Keith was on a rampage.

It had been just about a _year_ since Lance was taken. A year since Keith had touched him or heard his voice. It was just so quiet without the warmth of his voice. If they were right and Lance was here than nothing was going to get in Keith’s way.

Keith knocked out a large galra soldier by himself while he was high on adrenaline. He didn’t know if it was a killing blow or not and didn’t stop to check even though murdering someone had always chilled the deep back of his mind.

A mixture of hope and dread churned in him when he reached the holding cells. The way everything was set up it looked like a hospital or a medical wing. And also a prison. Those two concepts did not mesh well.

It smelled like chemicals.

Keith put his hand on a panel and the doors of the cells opened. They seemed empty. But one had odd noises coming from it. Keith gripped his bayard and approached slowly.

Inside the small room an emaciated, humanoid figure was hunched, trembling, in the corner facing the wall. Their messy hair reached their shoulders. There was something about their shoulders…

They had no arms. The tattered sleeves just hung off of their stunted shoulders.

Then it wasn’t Lance. But there wasn’t anyone else there. Damn it. This person still needed help but Keith was sick of chasing false leads.

Unless it _was_ Lance. The hair was the same color. If it was...

Keith gulped. “Lance?” he asked, afraid of the answer.

The person turned around so fast they fell onto their side. Their hair was in their face but when they reoriented themself Keith could see it.

They didn’t _have_ a face. No distinguishable eyes or nose or mouth – just scars and and mutilation and old wounds trying to heal. There must have been an airway open somewhere in that mess because Keith could hear rapid, wet whistling and oh _shit_ he was going to be sick.

“Lance?” asked Keith again.

The person scrabbled around on their gangly legs and threw themself onto Keith, a bastardized attempt at an embrace with muffled whines and whimpers and no no no-

“No, no, no- _fuck_ \- I’m sorry, I’m sorry- here, Lance, I’ve got you” sobbed Keith. “W-what did they _do_ to you?” Why? Why did this have to happen to Lance of all people?

Keith tried to take a deep, shaky breath and wrapped his arms around Lance. It was strangely easier without Lance’s arms there.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, we looked everywhere, we never stopped-”

“Did you find him, Keith? We’re almost there to meet you” said Allura in Keith’s ear piece. She didn’t sound like she expected Keith to have actually found him.

“I-I found him” said Keith. His crying was obvious in his voice.

“What?!” everyone yelled.

“Is he… is he alive?” asked Pidge in a small voice.

Keith didn’t answer right away.

“Yes… but he’s in really, really bad shape.” They starved him and ripped his arms off and shredded his face and-

“We’ll be right over. Just hang in there, both of you” said Shiro.

Keith held onto Lance tighter. He gripped one hand in his hair and rubbed the other up and down his back.

“It’s okay. You’re safe now. I’ll keep you safe. I’ll never let you go ever again.”

Lance was still and quiet. He may have fallen asleep. He could have been dead if it weren’t for Keith feeling his labored breathing.

When everyone made it to them nothing could have prepared them for the situation. Hunk almost vomited right there. Allura clenched her hands into fists.

“Keith. I’m sorry, but… we have to put him out of his misery” said Allura.

“What are you talking about?” asked Keith. What the hell did she mean, ‘put him out of his misery’?

“I mean that, unfortunately, he’s of no use to Voltron now. He’ll not be of use to anyone at all like this. It’s terrible what he has suffered but… we have to think about the future. We can’t put our effort into supporting him.”

Lance tensed in Keith’s arms. He could hear her. Keith needed a second to find his voice.

“Is this… some kind of sick joke? Is this some weird Altean coping thing? Either way, start making sense” snapped Keith, getting angrier as his sentence went on.

“She’s not joking. I agree with her” said Shiro.

Keith’s heart broke.

“So, what, you want to kill him?”

“Look at him, Keith. They destroyed him. We need a defender of the entire universe and he’s too broken. He’s beyond help. He’s suffered enough anyway. We should end it for his sake before we change our minds” said Shiro.

Lance shook his head back and forth frantically and sounded like he was trying to scream.

“But he doesn’t want to die!” yelled Keith. “Stop talking about him like he’s not here! He can hear you and you’re scaring him!” What was scaring _Keith_ was that they almost, almost had a point. If Keith was the person he was when they first found the blue lion in the cave he might not have thought it was that outrageous. But now…

“I just can’t believe this. After all this time spent looking for him? After how much you said you missed him? Lance is your friend! Did you forget that, Hunk? How long have you two known each other? You’re gonna let them kill Lance?”

Hunk looked at Lance and his voice wavered. “I’m sorry, buddy. You’re my best friend and I’ll always love you, but… I think it’s time to let go.”

Lance sobbed without tears and tried to bury himself into Keith’s arms.

“You’re all insane. You’re not touching him!” snarled Keith.

The other paladins looked at each other and nodded. Shiro lunged forward and restrained Keith, ripping him away from Lance.

“Lance! Let me go, Shiro! You’ve got to know this is wrong!”

“I’m so sorry, Keith. Lance. I hate to hurt you two. But it has to be done” said Shiro.

Lance choked and cried and tried to get up off the ground. He couldn’t manage it as much as he was shaking and slid back against the wall.

“Shh, shh, shh. It won’t hurt, Lance, it’ll be fast” Shiro tried to soothe.

Allura stepped forward and raised her bayard.

_“No!”_

Keith fell off of his chair onto the cold floor.

His chair?

He tried to catch his breath. What the _fuck?_ He rolled on his side and dry heaved. When he stopped he looked around, trying to figure out what was going on. He was by the cryopods. Lance was-

Lance was in one of them. There was a pretty bad gash across his nose and down onto his cheek but other than that he wasn’t much worse for wear.

But Keith was still living in the dream that he just woke from. He ran over and pressed his hands against the glass.

“Please be alive! Please wake up! Please tell me you’re alright!”

As if Lance heard Keith’s pleas the pod opened and he fell right into Keith’s arms.

“I’m alive. I’m awake. And I’m pretty sure I’m alright. _You_ look like hell, though” said Lance.

Keith shook his head. “I thought she killed you.”

“She?” asked Lance.

“All- uh. Nevermind. You’re really back with us, aren’t you? We never, ever stopped looking. I thought about you every day, all the time.”

“Thinking of being safe with you kept me going, too.”

Lance embraced Keith.

“I’m so, so sorry” Keith hiccuped.

“Hey, hey. Don’t cry. You found me, didn’t you? I’m the one who let my guard down really. And it was for what, like, a couple of weeks? Shiro got through a lot longer than that. It’s not like I was gone for a year or something.”

Keith kissed Lance gently. Lance smiled against his mouth.

“It felt like an eternity” said Keith.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> an alternate version of keith’s dream

Keith tried to calm down. He didn’t want to stress Lance out anymore than he already was. The other boy had fallen asleep in Keith’s arms. He probably hadn’t slept in who knows how long and the moment he realized he was safe he passed out.

“It’s okay. You’re safe now. I’ll keep you safe. I’ll never let you go ever again” Keith promised, rubbing Lance’s back.

When their team arrived they were just about mortified. Keith told them it was bad but they wouldn’t have been able to imagine what it was like if they tried.

“Can he even survive like this? If we had to could we, well... put him out of his misery?” asked Allura, trying and failing to word it carefully.

Everyone looked at her in shock and Keith felt Lance tense up.

“He’s awake now. He can hear you” said Keith quietly.

Allura hissed in a breath. He was able to be conscious right now? “I’m sorry, Lance. I just don’t want you to suffer, dear. I won’t do anything rash if you don’t want it” she said.

Lance shifted slightly out of Keith’s grasp towards Allura’s voice. Without hesitation everyone fell to the ground and gave Lance and Keith one big group hug.

“It’s gonna be okay, buddy. We found you. We’re gonna take you home” said Hunk.

“That’s right. You’ve been _so_ brave, Lance. You can just relax now and we’ll take care of you” said Shiro.

Pidge ran her small hand through Lance’s hair. “You need a bubble bath and some of that overpowering cologne you love so much.”

Keith chuckled. “Yeah. And a haircut. Unless you want to be mullet twins.”

Lance couldn’t help his little noises of sobbing and semi-hysterical laughter that managed to come out as his friends loved on him. Nobody minded at all. They hadn’t heard his voice in a year and they’d take it in any form it came in.

Keith leaned over and kissed a spot on Lance’s neck where the skin was clear of any scars or wounds.

“I love you, baby.”

Shiro moved away and started to stand. “Sorry, but we have to get out of here. Someone’s bound to have noticed all the sentries laying around and the opened doors.”

_And that possibly dead galra soldier_ thought Keith a bit guiltily. He almost forgot where they were and what they were doing.

“Alright. Up we go” said Keith, lifting Lance to carry him. He could hardly stand on shaking legs and wouldn’t be able to see where he was going anyway so this would be faster.

There would be a lot to think about, like how they didn’t even know how Lance would be able to do basic necessities like _eat_. But that was for later. For now he was alive, and that was enough, and they needed to get out of there in one piece to keep it that way.

  



End file.
